The book opens with Selin, a first generation Turkish-American, arriving at Harvard as a freshman in 1995. She tells of her experiences trying to navigate orientation week, living with roommates for the first time, and signing up for seminars and extracurricular activities.

Selin’s two roommates, Hannah and Angela, are very different from each other and from Selin. The three of them live in a two-bedroom suite with a common room. Angela, having arrived earlier than anyone else, takes the single bedroom, leaving Selina and Hannah to share the other bedroom. The three women agree to rotate throughout the year, so everyone gets a chance to live in the single.

Hannah is loud and desperate to make friends, while Angela is quiet and reserved, but sweet. Hannah’s desire for noise irritates Selin at times, but she tries to empathize with her roommate after learning that Hannah’s older brother suffers from some kind of illness, which had kept their house quiet and had alienated the girl from her peers in the past.

The narrator’s attempts to join a prestigious seminar where students work with famous senior faculty are unsuccessful. She is told in one of her interviews that she is considered to be creative, but not academically inclined.